Methods for enhancing digital search query techniques based on task-oriented user activity

• US 20090157617A1
• Filed: 12/12/2007
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Mozy, Inc. (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Forbes, John B., Dietterich, Thomas G., Herlocker, Jonathan L., Maritz, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,706,748 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2452 Query translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24542 Plan optimisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90324 using system suggestions

Abstract

Methods for using task-related information to enhance digital searching are provided. A task-oriented user activity system maintains task-related information about resources accessed by a user and current user task. This task-related information is used to enhance search queries to include task-related search criteria that improve relevance of search results. The task-related information can also be used to include task-related metadata in search engine index, e.g., by storing the metadata in the index or by storing it in resources which are subsequently indexed. Task-related information can also be used to enhance search results by filtering and ranking results to increase relevance with respect to a user'"'"'s current task.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for digital search with a task-enhanced search query, the method comprising:

generating a search query based on interaction with a user;

wherein the search query includes a task-related search term;

retrieving from a search engine index search results matching the search query; and

presenting the search results to the user;

wherein generating the search query comprises obtaining task-related features from a task-oriented activity system, wherein the task-related features are representative of a current task of the user predicted by the task-oriented activity system, and processing the search query to include extended search terms derived from the task-related features.

2. A computer-implemented method for digital search with a task-enhanced search query, the method comprising:

generating a search query based on interaction with a user;

wherein the search query includes a task-related search term;

retrieving from a search engine index search results matching the search query; and

presenting the search results to the user;

wherein generating the search query comprises obtaining the task-related search term from the user, wherein the task-related search term includes a specification of a task.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein generating the search query further comprises submitting the task to a task-oriented activity system to obtain extended search terms representing features related to the task, and processing the search query to include the extended search terms.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the processing uses a lookup table to map the features to extended search terms appropriate for a particular search engine.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the task-related search term is a task-related metadata criterion specifying a task;

wherein the search engine is an enhanced search engine supporting task-oriented query language extensions.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein generating the search query comprises mapping the task-related metadata criterion to search engine query terms using a lookup table.